The May 17,
2018 Contemporary Art Evening Auction at Christie's New York is
highlighted by a great painting by Francis Bacon, several superb works
by Richard Diebenkorn, a large Mark Bradford, an impressive Nicholas de
Stael, a ravishing George Condo, a good Clyfford Still and a nice David
Hockney.

Lot 7 is a large "Study for Portrait" of George Dyer by Francis Bacon,
an oil and dry transfer lettering on canvas from 1977. It
measures 78 by 58 1/4 inches. It is from the collection of Magnus
Konow. It has been widely published.

The catalogue entry provides the following commentary:

"The figure...is an ode to carnal pleasure, wrought with fluid, tactile
brushstrokes, spectral veils of white and scrumbled strains of color
around the eyes and mouth. It his Dyer in his prime, flickering
like a projection or an x-ray presiding over the composition with the
tortured grandeur of Bacon's early Popes. Rarely was his body so
passionately articulated with a mixture of raw draughtsmanship and
free-style painterly bravura, creating a swirling vortex of physical
agitation. Raised upon a dais against a blank clinical abyss, his
quivering form speaks to the transient nature of human existence."

Bacon is the magnified Bosch unveiling our nightmares with stupendous
and indelible virtuosity.

The lot has an estimate on request. It sold for $49,812,500 including buyer's
premium.

The sale total was $398, 709,500 with
92 percent of the offered lots selling.

Lot
2 is a bright floral painting entitled "Anteriums" by David Hockney (b.
1937) painted in 1995. An oil on canvas on painted artist's
frame, it
measures 41 by 53 1/2 inches oversll. The catalogue entry notes
that
"At once radiant and intimate, [it]...marks the painter's triumphant
return to painting after a decade spent behind the camera's
lens." It
has an estimate of $2,500,000 to $3,500,000. It sold for $5,600,000.

Lot
20 is a very large work by Mark Bradford, entitled "Boreas," that hung
between the two staircases at Christie's New York during the auction's
exhibition. A mixed media collage on canvas, it was executed in
2007 and measures 102 by 144 inches.

The
catalogue entry provides the following commentary:

"Mark
Bradford's triumphant Boreas is a monumental example of the California
artist's layered brand of socially conscious abstraction.
Applying discarded paper remnants salvaged from his native Los Angeles,
Bradford adds and subtracts material to arrive at paintings that
resemble an eroded canyong or the map of an extraterrestrial
surface....The colorful areas of the painting, obscured partially
by the tendril-like marks, prove to be full of classic Bradford
material: newspapers, magazines, posters, photographs and a whole host
of other unknown visual scraps. Like a stream of consciousness,
Bradford's imagery blends together, appearing in flashes of clarity in
an otherwise conglomerated field....The colored expanse underneath the
painting's upper crust serves as a sort of engine, driving the action
around it and compelling the painting's searching roots to form
themselves around the images....He arrived at his recognizable mature
style by layering sheets of paper used in his mother's hair salon,
where he worked as a teenager, and coloring them with hair dye."

There
is a geographic specificity to much of his work that is strong and
certain and not ambiguous.

It
has an estimate of $5,000,000 to $7,000,000. It sold for $7,625,000.

If
Bradford's intricate roadmaps of paint are three-dimensional, Nichalas
de Stael's palette-knife scrapes are mesmerizingly tactile, especially
in Lot 37, "Nu Debout," a 1953 oil on canvas that measures 57 1/8 by 35
1/8 inches. de Stael's painterliness is as awesomely visceral as
Bacon's. This painting has been very widely exhibited. It
has an estimate of $7,500,000 to $9,500,000. It sold for $12,125,000.

Lot 38 is an abstraction by
Clyfford Still (1904-1980) entitled "PH-916 (1946-No. 1)." An oil
on canvas, it measures 71 by 45 inches and was painted in 1947.
It was acquired directly from the artist by Alfonso Ossorio and has
been widely exhibited and published. It has an estimate of
$15,000,000 to $20,000,000. It failed to sell.

Lot 27 is a large abstract oil
on canvas by Mark Rothko (1903-1970), Entitled "No. 7 (Dark Over
Light,)," it measures 90 by 58 5/8 inches and was painted in
1954. When this was auctioned at Christie's New York in November,
2007, it had an estimate of $20,000,000 to $30,000 and it sold for
$21,041,000. This time it has an estimate on request. It sold for $30,687,500.

The
auction contains several works by Richard Diebenborn (1922-1993) that
are being sold to benefit the Donald and Barbara Zucker Family
Foundation.

Lot 23 is a very vibrant
gouache, acrylic and crayon on paper by Diebenkorn that measures 36 by
25 inches and was painted in 1984. It has a modest estimate of
$2,500,000 to $3,500,000. It
sold for $3,850,000.

Lot 26 is a
large oil on canvas by Diebenkorn's famous "Ocean Park" series.
It measures 93 by 81 inches and was painted in 1984. It has an
estimate of $16,000,000 to $20,000,000. It sold for $23,937,500.

The strongest one in the Diebenkorn group
is Lot 31, "Untitled," a gouache, charcoal and pasted paper on jointed
paper that measures 33 by 23 inches. It was painted in
1986. It has a modest estimate of $1,000,000 to $1,500,000.
It sold for $1,092,500.

Lot
28 is another untitled Diebenborn that is an acrylic, crayon, graphite
and pasted paper on joined paper. It measures 37 3/8 by 25 inches
and was executed in 1991. It has an estimate of $2,200,000 to
$3,000,000. It sold for $3,
972,500.

Lot
39 is a large synthetic polymer paint on canvas by Frank Stella (b.
1936) that is entitled "Lettre sur les sourds et muets I." It is
141 inches square and was painted in 1974. It has an estimate of
$5,000,000 to $7,000,000. It
sold for $7,062,500.

Lot 11 is a fine and large, 1958 oil on
canvas by Joan Mitchell (1925-1992). It measures 81 1/4 by 108
1/2 inches. It was included in a retrospective exhibition at the
Whitney Museum of American Art, the Birmingham Museum of Art, the
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and the Des Moines Art Center in
2002-4. It has an estimate of $7,000,000 to $9,000,000. It
sold for $9,087,500.

Lot 18, "Nude and Forms," by George Condo, oil on canvas, 80 by 72 inches, 2014

Lot
18 is a fine large oil on canvas by George Condo (b. 1957) entitled
"Nude and Forms." It measures 80 by 72 inches and was painted in
2014. The catalogue entry references the artist's interest in
Cubism. The lot has an estimate of $2,200,000 to
$2,800,000. It sold for $6,162,500.

Lot
9, "Double Elvis (Ferus type)," is a large silkscreen ink and spay
paint on linen by Andy Warhol (1928-1987) that was painted in
1963. It measures 81 3/4 by 48 inches.

The following
commentary is from Michele Leight's review at thecityreview,com of the
May 9, 2012 auction at Sotheby's New York in which this lot appeared:

"It would
be hard to overstate
the impact of Elvis - globally - and brilliant Andy Warhol got
that. The skinny jean silhouette that Elvis emphasised with his
incredible hip swiveling and gyrating while he sang not only catapulted
him to the top of the charts, but also sent every teenager on
the planet scrambling to find jeans just like his. And then there
were the rhinestone encrusted shirts, cowboy boots and that amazing
lop-sided smile! He was a style and a Pop icon,
impossibly
handsome, and that "look" persists in every nook and
cranny in the world, even today - but no one can really look like
him. Then there was the ethereal voice, that beautiful voice.
What a trailblazerElvis was, captured in
superb by Andy
Warhol in Lot 27, "Double Elvis (Ferus Type)," executed
in 1963:

"(Thus)
in the summer
of 1963 there could not have been a more perfect alignment of
artist and subject than Warhol and Elvis. Perhaps the most famous
depiction of the biggest superstar by the original supestar artist,
'Double Elvis' is a historic paradigm of Pop Art from a breath-taking
moment in Art History. With devastating immediacy and efficiency,
Warhol's canvas seduces our view with a stunning aesthetic and
confronts our experience with a sophisticated array of thematic
content. Not only is there all of Elvis, man and legend, but we
are also presented with the specter of death, staring at us down
the barrel of a gun; and a lone cowboy, confronting the great
frontier and the American dream. The spray painted silver screen
denotes the glamour and glory of cinema, the artificiality of
fantasy, and the idea of a mirror that reveals our own reality
back to us. At the same time, Warhol's replication of Elvis' image
as a double stands as a metaphor for the means and effects of
mass-media and its inherent potential to manipulate and condition.
These thematic strata function in simultaneous concert to deliver
a work of phenomenal conceptual brilliance. The portrait of a
man, the portrait of a country, and the portrait of a time, Double
Elvis is an indisputable icon for our age..." (Sotheby's catalogue for
this sale)."

At this auction, the lot has an estimate on request.
It sold for $37,042,500.

Lot
54, "You Must Suffer If You Want to Be Beautiful," by Kerry James
Marshall, acrylic, graphite, crayon, paper collage and printed paper
collage on canvas, 76 by 55 7/8 inches, 1991

Lot
54 is a large work by Kerry James Marshall (b. 1955) who the previous
night at Sotheby's New York set an auction record for a work for an
Afro-American artist when his painting, "Past Times," sold for more
than $21 million, more than four times the artist's previous auction
record. This lot, which is entitled "You Must Suffer If Your Want
to be Beautiful" has an estimate of $2,000,000 to $3,000,000. It sold for $2,922,500. It meausres 76 byt 55 7/8 inches and was painted in 1991.